Chapter 235: A Dog? The Third Hokage
"Impossible!"
"Absolutely impossible!"
After a brief silence, the Third Hokage immediately cried out in denial. He of all people knew what he had or hadn't done.
As far back as two years ago, he had completely lost interest in that kind of thing. There was no way he could've slept with Chiba Megumi six months ago.
Not to mention, at that time he had been swamped with matters concerning Kirigakure. He hadn't even had time to be with Megumi... wait, no—that's not right.
He quickly pushed away his jumbled thoughts.
He was certain. He hadn't touched Megumi six months ago.
"Are you sure her memory shows that man is really me?"
The Third looked skeptically at Yamanaka Kakyū, wondering if his old friend was just going senile. How could it be him in Megumi's memory?
Kakyū furrowed his brows and shook his head.
"If you don't believe me, have someone else examine her memories."
"But I really didn't do anything with her," the Third insisted, eyes steady. "I swear to you, it didn't happen."
"...Then let me check again."
Kakyū placed his hand back on Chiba Megumi's forehead and began to probe her memory from six months ago again.
But again, the man in her memory—the one she had been intimate with—was clearly the Third Hokage.
This time, to be absolutely sure, he even focused on the most explicit parts. He saw everything clearly. No doubt—it was Hiruzen.
Kakyū opened his eyes, withdrew his hand, and looked at Hiruzen with an expression of hesitation.
"Well?" the Third urged anxiously.
"It's still you," Kakyū said bluntly.
"How can that be?!" Hiruzen looked utterly baffled. Then his expression suddenly shifted to something darker. He asked,
"Could the Memory Probing Technique be wrong? Could her memory have been altered?"
"Impossible," Kakyū shook his head instinctively.
"The Memory Probing Technique scans memory at the cellular level. Even if Megumi was under genjutsu at the time, her spiritual perception may have been deceived, but her body's memory—what she saw, heard, felt—is always accurate. That cannot be faked."
"And as for memory alteration—if someone had tampered with her memory, her brain would contain traces of foreign chakra."
Kakyū added firmly,
"I found no trace of anyone else's chakra in her body. That much I can guarantee."
Memory tampering, like genjutsu, required chakra to work.
Though his chakra sensing wasn't that strong, while using the Memory Probing Technique, his chakra was fully merged with hers—if someone else's chakra was there, he would've felt it.
"But... I swear I didn't do it!"
The Third suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
Someone had somehow altered Megumi's memories to show himself—and even Kakyū's memory probe couldn't detect the change.
If the enemy could impersonate him undetected in Konoha...
The consequences would be unimaginable.
Just the thought made Hiruzen's scalp tingle.
He immediately forgot all about the humiliation of being cuckolded. Whoever could do this was far more terrifying than anything else.
And this had happened half a year ago… wait—
Who said that person had even left the village?
A terrifying thought struck him.
What if the intruder was still in Konoha, hiding in plain sight under someone else's identity?
Otherwise, how could Megumi's memory still be altered after all this time?
That person must possess a memory-altering technique so powerful that even the Memory Probing Technique couldn't expose it.
Hiruzen's heart turned heavy.
"Could it be..." Kakyū suddenly realized it too. No matter how unbelievable the truth might be, if they trusted that the Third had done nothing, then someone had indeed modified Chiba Megumi's memories.
And that modification was perfect—so perfect even he couldn't detect it.
This was a big problem.
"Me…gumi…" the Third looked at his former lover and sighed. His eyes quickly turned cold as he said to Kakyū,
"I'll assign others to assist you. You must figure out how her memory was altered."
"Understood, Lord Hokage." Kakyū responded seriously. He now grasped the severity of the issue.
And he also understood the deeper meaning in the Hokage's words—if necessary, they didn't have to care about Chiba Megumi's safety.
This kind of undetectable memory tampering was too dangerous. Konoha had to find a countermeasure immediately.
Otherwise, all of the village's secrets could be exposed under the enemy's nose.
Far too dangerous.
The Third Hokage quickly left and summoned ANBU and Danzō, launching a full-scale investigation of every person in Konoha. He also ordered someone to recall Jiraiya and Namikaze Minato from their training journey.
Hiruzen had personally witnessed Minato's unique chakra sensing abilities. Perhaps only he could detect the hidden enemy.
"Such cruelty from the Third... casting aside his woman like that,"
At the Hatake residence, the Lightning Release clone shook his head. From what he had just eavesdropped via shadow clone, the Third's mental fortitude was shockingly strong.
For the sake of Konoha's safety, he had no hesitation in sacrificing his own lover.
Trying to make someone like that mentally collapse… would not be easy.
"No, I'll have to come up with something even more twisted to break him."
Far away in the Land of Waves, Li Yao realized that his previous plan to imprison the Third and torment Sarutobi clan women before his eyes... wasn't cruel enough. Not painful enough.
He needed to crank it up.
Whoosh!
Using Flying Thunder God, Li Yao instantly teleported to the shadow clone who was researching the Perfect Transformation Technique.
At the seashore, the shadow clone was holding a seagull in one hand and a Kirigakure ninja by the throat in the other, sensing the chakra in both bodies.
The goal was to solve the problem of chakra concealment after transformation.
Li Yao's approach was fundamental:
Since chakra is a fusion of physical and spiritual energy, why not try reversing it—break it back down into its components?
That way, once transformed into a seagull, the chakra could be separated into its base elements. No chakra fluctuation = indistinguishable from a normal bird.
But the challenge was that once chakra had formed, its base components were no longer detectable.
In simple terms, Li Yao couldn't sense the original physical and spiritual energies within chakra—so breaking it back down was proving difficult.
The clone's current method was to compare the seagull's energies with those of the ninja, hoping to uncover some pattern.
"Mm..."
When Li Yao arrived, he didn't interrupt. Instead, he stared at the scene—clone holding a seagull in one hand and a rogue ninja in the other—and fell deep into thought.
He observed them for a while.
Then, suddenly, his eyes lit up.
"Hahaha… I've got it!"
Bursting with laughter, Li Yao teleported away—only to return moments later with a stray dog in one hand and a Kirigakure ninja in the other.
Poof!
With a thought, he summoned a shadow clone and tossed both the stray dog and the ninja at him.
"Your new task—figure out how to make this guy possess that stray dog."
This... was Li Yao's new method of increasing the Third Hokage's suffering.
Using the clone creation method, he would transplant the Third's will into the soul of a stray dog—forcing him to live out his days as an animal.
Yes… Li Yao had it all planned out.
Once the Third became a dog, every day he would be fed...
No, not just feces.
He would be forced to eat Uchiha clan feces.
Ah... what flavor!
Surely, the Third would love it!
(END CHAPTER)
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